


In Dads We Trust

by mylifeiskara



Series: t100 Fic for BLM Prompts [3]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bellamy and Murphy love their wives and that's that on that, Dad!Bellamy, Dad!Murphy, F/M, Kid Fic, Memori Children, YouTube, bellarke children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26884744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylifeiskara/pseuds/mylifeiskara
Summary: Bellamy and Murphy run a successful Youtube channel geared at stay-at-home and single dads. Josephine Lightbourne, a popular mommy blogger, threatens their empire. Shenanigans ensue.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & John Murphy, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Emori/John Murphy (The 100)
Series: t100 Fic for BLM Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105646
Comments: 41
Kudos: 176
Collections: The t100 Writers for BLM Initiative





	In Dads We Trust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [changingthefairy_tale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/changingthefairy_tale/gifts), [animmortalist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/animmortalist/gifts).



> Hello! Very excited to share this [t100 Fic for BLM](https://t100fic-for-blm.tumblr.com/) prompt with you all. Special thanks to Madison and Ryn for prompting me. 
> 
> The prompt was fairly loose, just a stay-at-home dads fic featuring Bellamy and Murphy, but I took some of my ideas for this from a discord conversation we all had and kind of expanded from there.
> 
> And another special thanks to [easilydistractedbyfanfic](https://easilydistractedbyfanfic.tumblr.com/) and [sparklyfairymira](https://sparklyfairymira.tumblr.com/) for helping me come up with Youtube channel and blog names, as I am famously bad at coming up with those sorts of things.

Bellamy frowns. He feels suspiciously well-rested. Cautiously opening one eye, he moves an arm in the space next to him and finds that it’s empty. Clarke’s awake. It’s a normal work day. The only thing that’s different is that an eager child hasn’t barreled into the room demanding that he wake up. He blinks a few times before sitting up. He should probably start his day. He pulls himself out of bed and shuffles to August’s room.

“Hey, buddy,” Bellamy says as he pokes his head into August’s room, though he finds it empty. He frowns, before peeking next door to see that Maia isn’t in her crib.

Bellamy makes his way downstairs to find his children are already in the kitchen, Maia in her high chair and August at the table. They’re both dressed and cheerfully chewing on their breakfasts. Clarke is at the stove, flipping a pancake before placing it on the plate next to her.

“Daddy!” Maia shouts reaching her sticky hands out to greet Bellamy.

“Hey, bug,” Bellamy says. He plants a kiss on top of her head, before running a hand through August’s hair. August doesn’t say very much in the mornings, but he smiles up at Bellamy before turning back to his plate.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Clarke says with a smile.

“Morning,” he says before pressing a quick kiss to his wife’s lips. “Is there some special occasion I’m missing?”

“Just thought you’d appreciate sleeping in for a change.” She slides the plate to him.

Bellamy takes it eagerly and gets a fork out of the drawer. He takes a bite and sighs as the buttery taste hits his mouth. Clarke’s not the best cook, but she sure does know how to make pancakes.

“Have I ever told you you’re amazing?” he asks mid-chew.

Clarke chuckles as she pours the last of the batter into her pan. “At least once a day.”

“Well I mean it.”

He puts his plate down to give her a longer kiss, resulting in a chorus of “Ew” that’s started by August. Maia, who’s in her copycat phase, follows suit, which only causes Bellamy to chuckle at his children’s disgust. He loves their mom, he can’t help it.

Bellamy never really pictured being a stay-at-home dad. He’d been teaching middle school history when Clarke got pregnant, and they were both over the moon. Clarke, the youngest department head of pediatric surgery in the history of Arkadia Memorial Hospital, is well-respected and loved by her colleagues. She loves her job more than anything, and as excited as she was to be a mother, she knew she’d want to go back to work. Bellamy supported her, and as they talked more and more before August was born, Bellamy realized he wanted to stay home and be there when the baby came. They were fortunate enough to be in a financial position where this was possible, and it would be easy for Bellamy to pick up teaching again when August was finally old enough to go to school.

Cut to four years and two children later, and Bellamy has this whole stay-at-home dad thing down to a science. In the mornings, Clarke helps August get ready while Bellamy wakes up Maia and gets breakfast together. Clarke drops August off at preschool before she goes to work, and Bellamy does errands and spends time with their daughter. But since Clarke decided to get everyone up this morning, Bellamy got a little extra time to sleep in. There’s no special occasion, it’s just his wife being incredibly thoughtful. He’s grateful for her everyday, and this is a big reason why.

Bellamy brings his plate to the kitchen table and sits down next to August.

“Ready for school today, Augie?” he asks.

August nods, a big smile on his face. “Mommy let me pick out my own shirt today!”

He pulls on his dinosaur shirt so that Bellamy can see it better. Bellamy smiles at his son.

“It looks great, buddy! You did a good job.”

August beams, then turns back to the last few crumbs on his plate.

“Five more minutes, then we have to get going, Augie, okay?” Clarke says as she pours her coffee into a travel mug.

“Okay, Mommy.”

Bellamy turns to see that August has a great deal of syrup smeared across his face. He’s always been a messy eater. Bellamy gets up from the table and wets a paper towel before coming back over and pressing it to his son’s mouth. August whines in protest, but eventually gives in.

“Come on, you can’t go to school sticky.”

“Don’t try too hard, Bellamy, you know he’s just gonna get sticky again later,” Clarke calls as she gathers her work things.

Bellamy laughs, but continues wiping August’s face. He hands him the wet towel and tells him to wipe his hands for good measure. August does as he’s told, though he doesn’t seem too keen on it.

Bellamy goes into the fridge and hands August his lunch as Clarke helps him get his backpack. He stands in the doorway of the kitchen as the two of them get ready to leave. He bends down to August’s level and looks him in the eye as he hands him his lunch.

“Have a good day at school,” Bellamy says.

August nods. “I will.”

“And what are you gonna do today?”

“Listen and learn,” August answers. He’s used to this now, since it’s something that they do every morning before he leaves.

“That’s right.” Bellamy ruffles his hair again before pressing a kiss on top of his head. He stands up and gives Clarke a kiss goodbye before she hurries their son out the door. They have a schedule to keep, after all.

Once they’re gone, Bellamy turns his attention back to Maia, who’s even more syrup covered than her brother was. He cleans her off, then sits her down with a couple of toys so he can deal with the kitchen before he finishes helping her get ready.

“Ready to go to Uncle Murphy’s?” Bellamy asks as he helps her into her jacket.

“And Charlie!” Maia adds.

Bellamy chuckles. “Yeah, Charlie will be there, too.”

Bellamy lifts Maia into his arms and grabs her diaper bag that lives by the door before getting in the car to head off to Murphy’s house.

Before August was old enough to go to school, Bellamy thought it would be fun to immerse him in some activities with other children. He also thought it might be nice to interact with some other parents. As much as Bellamy loved staying home with his young son, he figured he could use some conversation with someone his own age during the day. Bellamy tried out a few classes, and August seemed to have fun, but Bellamy’s favorite by far was the baby music class.

On the first day of class, Bellamy walked into the room and was greeted with many friendly looking mothers and their cute babies. He was used to this, since most of the stay-at-home parents he had encountered were women. So it took Bellamy by surprise to see another dad that looked a bit younger than him in the room. The other man was sitting with his baby, who was basically a mini version of himself, and the baby looked to be somewhat close to August’s age. Unused to finding other dads, Bellamy carried August over to the mat next to them. He introduced himself and though he didn’t know it yet, his life changed the day he met John Murphy and his son Charlie.

Bellamy and Murphy quickly bonded over being married to ambitious women and choosing to stay home so their wives could advance in their careers. Bellamy learned that Murphy was used to being the only dad in the room for these sorts of things, since he had an older daughter who was finally old enough to be in school. He admitted that some of the moms were nice enough, but they were sometimes hard to talk to, since there was no happy medium between the ones who were silently judging his wife for wanting to work and the ones who lauded unnecessary praise on him for sacrificing career ambitions to stay home and raise his children. Murphy didn’t seem to mind these insinuations, though. When Bellamy asked how he dealt with those sorts of comments, Murphy simply shrugged and said, “I like being a kept man.”

They started arranging playdates outside of music class. Bellamy had never had another parent friend before, and he was glad to find someone as chill as Murphy. Murphy also had great advice, since Charlie was his second kid, and he’d been around the block before with certain milestones. Bellamy’s not sure where he’d be without Murphy’s help, even going so far as to mention to him one day that he shouldn’t keep all that advice to himself, maybe even start a blog. Murphy took the idea one step further and suggested they start a Youtube channel. Bellamy was hesitant of the idea at first, but understood where he was coming from. Bellamy had watched plenty of parenting videos and most of the recommended videos were from blonde, white Christian mothers, and their advice wasn’t always the most accessible. Come to think of it, Bellamy didn’t think he’d ever seen anything geared towards single or stay-at-home dads. They found a void, and they filled it. And now their channel, Two Dads & a Vlog, is actually pretty popular.

Bellamy lifts Maia out of the car and walks up the driveway to Murphy and Emori’s house. He rings the doorbell and hears an excited squeal behind the door. Maia squirms in his arms, ready to get down.

“You’ll see Charlie in a minute, bug,” Bellamy assures her, just as the door opens to reveal a sock footed Murphy, and Charlie clinging to his leg.

“Maia!” Charlie shouts excitedly as he attempts to run outside.

Murphy quickly grabs him and lifts him up so he can’t escape, much to his dismay.

“Let them in first, little man,” Murphy says, stepping aside so Bellamy can come inside.

Bellamy puts Maia down and helps her out of her jacket as Murphy closes the door and lets Charlie go. Charlie grabs Maia’s hand and pulls her into the living room. Bellamy can’t help but chuckle at the sight.

“I don’t know what she’s gonna do when Charlie starts school,” Bellamy muses as he and Murphy stare after their kids.

At two years old, Maia is the youngest of the Griffin-Blake and Murphy children. Bellamy met Murphy right around the time Clarke found out she was pregnant again, and Charlie’s been pretty fascinated with Maia from the get-go. Having just turned three, he’s not off to preschool just yet, but Bellamy and Murphy both know they’re in for a rude awakening when Maia can’t play with Charlie all day anymore.

“Eh, we’ll cross that bridge next September,” Murphy shrugs. “Coffee?”

“Please.”

Murphy leads Bellamy into the kitchen and pours coffee into a mug that says “Best Dad in the Universe”. Bellamy takes it and eagerly sips.

Murphy picks up his own mug that reads “#1 House Husband.” He studies Bellamy for a moment as if they don’t see each other most days.

“Did you need something?” Bellamy asks as an amused smile spreads across his face.

“You just look more alert than usual,” Murphy says. “Did you get some this morning?”

Bellamy snorts and feels his face heat up, though he’s not at all surprised by Murphy’s somewhat inappropriate question.

“No, I did not,” he answers. “Clarke got the kids up this morning so I slept in a little.”

“I’m jealous. Emori is not a morning person, so she always ends up on bedtime duty.”

“Come on, don’t act like you don’t love spending time with sleepy children in the mornings.”

“I mean, of course I love it. And it helps that Ana actually wakes _us_ up most mornings. Never thought I’d have a kid who’s so excited to go to school,” Murphy adds with a chuckle.

“She’s liking first grade, then?”

“She loves it. And it’s too early in the year for the teachers to have figured out that she’s secretly mean. They just think she’s cute so far.”

Bellamy laughs. Murphy has always described Ana as an adorable menace. She’s very sweet when you first meet her, but after a while her true personality shines and it turns out she’s bossy and incredibly sarcastic. Bellamy’s never met a six-year-old so witty, and he and Clarke have had numerous debates on whether or not she gets more of her personality from Murphy or Emori. Their answers tend to change regularly.

Their coffee break is interrupted by children’s shouts and laughter from the living room. Murphy sighs and leaves the room, Bellamy following closely behind him. These noises are par for the course, but it’s always good to check and make sure everything’s okay. It’s time to start their production meeting, anyway.

They enter the living room and are met with Maia and Charlie climbing over Roan, Bellamy and Murphy’s main producer. About six months after launching their channel, Roan approached Murphy and Bellamy saying he loved their content and wanted to help them take their videos and brand a step further. Bellamy was shocked by this, seeing as Roan is a big, burly man who seems like the last thing he’d want is to do anything involving children. His mind was immediately changed when they invited Roan to Murphy’s house for an interview and saw how good he was with August, Charlie, and Maia. He asked them all questions and even indulged them in a game they were playing. Bellamy and Murphy offered Roan the position that afternoon, and Bellamy’s never been more grateful to have someone else on their team. Having Roan as an addition elevated their channel to a level that Bellamy didn’t think was possible.

Today’s game of climbing over Roan has Maia on his back and Charlie on his front. He clambers around, letting out a few roars as he makes his way around the living room. When he sees Bellamy and Murphy watching in the corner of the room, he makes his way over to the couch, bends down, and deposits both kids there, sending them into a fit of giggles.

“Again, Uncle Roro!” Charlie shouts as he tries to climb on Roan again.

“We can in a little bit, buddy,” Roan answers. “I have to do some work first.”

Charlie pouts and folds his arms to his chest. “That’s boring!”

“Boring!” Maia says, imitating Charlie. Bellamy can’t help but chuckle at how cute she looks, even though he probably shouldn’t be encouraging this behavior.

“You guys can play with Uncle Roro while we’re recording,” Murphy says before walking over to the TV and turning it on for them. “You know the drill.”

Maia and Charlie hunker down on the couch now that _Peppa Pig_ is on, paying close attention to the screen. Bellamy smiles, and takes a seat at the table, Murphy and Roan joining him. Once a week, Roan sits Bellamy and Murphy down for a production meeting to discuss the three videos that will be posted to the channel and to discuss new ideas. The videos vary, but usually they’re a combination of a video led by Bellamy with book reviews for story time, Murphy sharing recipes or doing hair tutorials, and a video where Bellamy and Murphy chat together about different parenting topics. Their vlog videos tend to be their most popular, probably because Murphy always manages to say something off the cuff, and it can’t all get edited out.

“Alright, what’s on tap for this week, Roro?” Murphy asks.

Roan rolls his eyes. “You can call me by my actual name. You’re not a child that struggles to pronounce it.”

“You should just be grateful I got Emori to stop calling you ‘hunkle’. One step at a time.”

Roan continues as if Murphy hadn’t spoken. “So Murphy’s mac and cheese video is all edited and scheduled for this afternoon. We’re wrapping editing on Bellamy’s review of _Calvin and Hobbes_ for Wednesday. All you guys have to do is record your picky eaters vlog for Friday.”

Bellamy nods. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Also, I was scrolling through some parenting blogs the other day, and I saw that _Parents Magazine_ is starting the nominations period for their annual awards, and there’s a few categories for parenting blogs and Youtube channels. So definitely take a second at the end of your video to plug that and encourage your subscribers to nominate you guys,” Roan adds.

“Is there a prize attached?” Murphy asks.

“It doesn’t always have to be about the prize, Murphy,” Bellamy says.

“Come on, there has to be something good. That magazine and website probably rake in loads of money every year.”

“Winners get a feature spot on the website for an entire year,” Roan answers. “So more exposure for you is always a plus.”

Murphy throws Bellamy an “I told you so” look, as if they’re still a group of middle schoolers. Sometimes Murphy acts like it. But then again, that’s part of his charm.

“I guess that would be nice,” Bellamy concedes.

“Great. I’ve taken the liberty of writing up a few bullet points that you guys should mention while you’re recording. And of course we’ll put the link to the nomination form in the description when the video goes up on Friday.”

Roan slides them each a one-sheet with the nomination info. Bellamy looks it over. It’s fairly simple, laid out the same way Roan formats their information when they do sponsored ads. It’s moments like these that Bellamy feels slightly overwhelmed at all the attention that their channel has received. People have actually started turning to them for advice, have started seeing them as experts. It’s hard to fathom when most days Bellamy doesn’t feel like an expert. He’s lucky that he has a support system with Clarke, and now Murphy and Emori. Even Roan. But if he and Murphy can help just one parent feel slightly less alone with their videos, then this whole crazy adventure has been absolutely worth it.

“Were there any fun outtakes from the mac and cheese video that I can post to social?” Murphy asks.

“Yeah, I’ll have Myles send them to you.”

“Great.” Murphy slaps the table as he stands up and looks to Bellamy. “Shall we talk about picky eaters?”

Bellamy grins. “Let’s do it.”

Murphy goes to the couch and ruffles Charlie’s hair, though he doesn’t pay his dad much attention, eyes still glued to the TV. Bellamy follows suit, pressing a kiss to Maia’s head. She reaches her arms out to him and whines when he doesn’t pick her up.

“You stay here with Uncle Roro, okay? I’ll be back in a little while.”

Maia pouts, but turns her attention back to the TV. Bellamy shakes his head fondly at his daughter, only two but already with such a personality. He grabs his coffee and pats Roan on the shoulder before following Murphy out of the living room and upstairs to his office.

Murphy’s office has been converted into one of Bellamy and Murphy’s filming spaces. Bellamy has his own area in the basement of his house where he films his book review segments, but they always film their joint bits at Murphy’s house while Roan sits downstairs and watches the kids. Thankfully it’s an unforeseen producer duty that he doesn’t seem to mind. Murphy says it’s because their kids are adorable, but it probably helps that he’s being paid.

Bellamy closes the door behind him as Murphy fiddles with the lights in the room. Their sitdown vlog setup kind of looks like a newsroom, a table and two chairs in front of a simple backdrop. Sometimes they add decorations depending on the time of year. Since it’s October, Murphy has a few paper bats hanging from the ceiling. It reminds Bellamy of how he used to decorate his classroom back when he was still teaching.

Bellamy sets his mug down on the table in front of his chair and goes to set up the camera.

“Are Ana and Charlie picky eaters?” Bellamy asks as they get ready.

Murphy snorts. “Not really. If anything, Emori is pickier than both of our children. I usually cook things more catered to her palette than anyone else’s.”

Bellamy laughs. “Maia pretty much eats whatever. August is weird about certain textures.”

“Hey, now,” Murphy interrupts. “Save it for when the camera’s rolling.”

They take about ten more minutes to set up and go over a few things they want to cover in the video. They tend to shoot these segments without much of a plan. They’ve found they get better takes when it’s more spontaneous. And it’s also why their editors have to bleep over Murphy’s countless swears. Once they’re all set in their seats, “#1 House Husband” and “Best Dad in the Universe” mugs on display, Murphy picks up the camera remote and hits the button so they’re recording.

Murphy launches into the intro. “Hi, welcome back to Two Dads & a Vlog. I’m Murphy, that’s Bellamy. And for today’s vlog we’re answering a subscriber question.”

“That’s right,” Bellamy says. “Email us your questions or leave a comment and maybe we’ll do a video to answer one. So user ‘My Lawn Mower Is Bigger Than Yours’ asks, ‘My three-year-old is going through a phase where she just won’t eat anything. Did your kids have phases like this, and do you have any tips or tricks for convincing sassy toddlers to just eat what they’re given?’”

Murphy laughs. “First of all, great username. I was just telling Bellamy earlier, but my kids have never been all that picky. So good thing they didn’t take after their mother in that regard. What about you?”

“My youngest will eat whatever you put in front of her, but my four-year-old is a little wary of trying new things. It becomes less of a problem if he sees someone else eat it first.”

“Does he help in the kitchen at all?”

“Not really.”

“I actually think that’s why my kids aren’t very picky,” Murphy explains. “If you’re at home with a baby all day, you’ll try and find lots of different ways to entertain yourself. And something I would do was narrate while I was cooking. Once my oldest could actually understand me, she sat with me in the kitchen and I would give her a little cooking show. Now she’s started helping me make dinner a couple times a week.”

“So knowing what goes into it helps them to eat it?”

“Yeah. And it’s a little bit of bonding time for us. I mean, Emori is clearly Ana’s favorite parent, but it’s always nice to have her attention before Emori gets home from work.”

“Hear that, people? Even John Murphy needs validation and attention from his children,” Bellamy jokes.

Murphy shrugs. “I never claimed I didn’t.”

They continue chatting for about an hour, sometimes giving actual helpful advice, sometimes going on tangents that don’t necessarily make sense. Their viewers love them, and once a month their editors put together the best tangents for an outtakes video. It always shows off Bellamy and Murphy’s dynamic in a fun way, and Bellamy loves watching them back. Murphy might be his best friend at this point, and it’s nice that they have these moments that they can share and look back on together.

Once they wrap up recording, they head back downstairs to the living room. Roan is sitting on the floor with Maia and Charlie as they draw pictures for him.

“That’s really pretty, Maia,” Roan says. “Who’s it for?”

“For you, Uncle Roro!” Maia shouts as she hands him the paper.

Roan feigns shock as he accepts the drawing. “Really? Oh, thank you so much. My very own Maia Griffin-Blake original!”

She giggles and runs into his arms. Bellamy’s heart warms. His daughter really is the sweetest.

“You ready to go, bug?” he calls to her. She perks up when she hears his voice and lets go of Roan in favor of running into her dad’s arms. Bellamy lifts her up and sits her on his hip. He doesn’t want Maia to get any bigger. He’s very aware of how quickly babies change, but he’s reveling in how cute and sweet she is. She hasn’t had anything resembling “terrible twos” yet, and he kind of hopes it stays that way.

“Hey, what are you wearing to the gala on Saturday?” Murphy asks, breaking Bellamy out of his trance.

He frowns. “Gala?”

“The annual gala at Emori’s job?”

“Oh, shi-- sugar. I forgot.”

Now it’s Murphy’s turn to frown. “How could you forget, your wife bought a table!”

“I need to find a babysitter.”

“Well, it’s Monday. Still some time. But you should probably figure out your costume.”

“Costume?”

“Yeah, it’s Halloween themed this year. Aren’t you supposed to be the keeper of the calendar and the invites? Do you not do that in your house?”

“Clarke is in charge of the adult social stuff,” Bellamy says as he helps Maia into her jacket.

“Oh. I’m the keeper of all the scheduling around here. I’d be lost without my planner.”

Bellamy chuckles as Murphy walks him and Maia to the door.

“I think I should find a babysitter before I find a costume. And I’m sure Clarke has an idea.”

“Suit yourself.” Murphy waves at Maia, a bright smile on his face. “See you later, Maia!”

Maia waves and blows Murphy a kiss. It’s her new thing, and it melts the hearts of everyone. Murphy’s heart melted when Ana was born, and Bellamy almost wonders what he was like before that, because he’s still fairly surly.

Bellamy buckles Maia into her carseat and calls Clarke as he starts the familiar drive home.

“Hello?” she asks, her voice sounding over the car’s speaker.

“Mama!” Maia squeals.

“Hi, baby! Bellamy, did you need something? I have a patient in ten minutes.”

“Did you remember that we have the Sanctum Foundation Gala this weekend?” Bellamy asks.

“Yeah. We bought a table. You don’t remember grumbling about cutting that check? And our in depth conversations about which of our friends we were inviting?”

Now it’s starting to come back to Bellamy. He definitely grumbled, since last year they only paid for two tickets, but he wants to support Emori and a good cause. And come to think of it, Clarke did have him on an email chain with a group of friends discussing the event. He couldn’t find anything to contribute to the conversation, so he had stopped opening them. Lately he’d only been checking his email for updates from Roan.

“It’s starting to sound familiar,” he admits.

“We can talk more about it when I get home.”

“Did you know the dress code is Halloween? Do you have costume ideas?”

Clarke chuckles. “I have a few.”

“Okay, good. Murphy really put me on the spot just now.”

“Is there anything else?” Bellamy can almost hear the amused smile in his wife’s voice. He tends to have moments like these where he’ll think he’s got everything covered, but then call Clarke in a panic. Most of the time he really does have it covered. But he’d still be lost without her.

“Can you send me Madi’s phone number? I want to text her and see if she’ll babysit on Saturday.”

“Sure thing. I’ll see you at home.”

“Thanks. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Be good for Daddy, Maia!”

“Bye, Mama!” Maia says.

Bellamy lets out a sigh as Clarke hangs up. Maybe Murphy is on to something being the keeper of everyone’s schedules and not just the kids’. At the next light he turns left, instead of right, deciding to make a pit stop at the store to buy himself a planner.

**________________________**

Murphy stands in the bathroom mirror, drawing a pencil thin mustache onto his face. He hasn’t put this much gel in his hair since high school and he feels a little ridiculous, but he knows he and Emori have to go all out for this gala. It’s the biggest night of the Sanctum Foundation’s year, and he knows how important Emori’s job is to her.

Right around the time Murphy and Emori got engaged, she was one of the lucky final candidates in a national job search for the new Executive Director of the Sanctum Foundation, a large nonprofit that provides therapy and support for children and teens in foster care. Out of five people, she was the youngest and the only woman of color among the applicant pool. She had been recognized by the search committee due to her impressive development resume and thoughtful improvements she’d facilitated at previous organizations that she felt weren’t serving their communities in the best possible way.

Around the same time, Emori found out she was pregnant with Ana. Murphy remembers her being devastated at first, worried that the search committee would feel she wasn’t serious about the position and would want to leave to start a family. He was livid, wanting so badly for his fiancée to get the dream job she deserved and had worked so hard for. He didn’t want her to suffer just because they weren’t all that careful. At the time he’d been working at a production company, editing videos and even producing a few segments of his own for an indie Youtube channel. If Emori got the job, it would mean a substantial pay increase, and he could easily edit videos from home if they needed more money. Murphy sat her down and said that he’d be happy to stay at home with the baby. He hadn’t always been sure if he wanted kids or not, but the idea of starting a family with Emori, the love of his life, made him immensely happy. And he wanted her to be immensely happy too.

Luck would have it that Emori did get the job. There was an adjustment period, and the board was slightly wary of the fact that she’d have to go on maternity leave almost as soon as she started, but Emori made it work, just like Murphy knew she would. And Murphy has never been more grateful than to get the chance to spend all his time with his baby daughter and talk to her about how amazing her mother is, even if she couldn’t understand what he was saying at first.

Cut to seven years, a wedding, and another baby later, and Emori has helped the Sanctum Foundation step into the twenty-first century. She’s done away with some incredibly outdated and colonistic practices, overseen an audit to make sure that the dollars the foundation brings in actually benefit the community, and has done numerous speaking engagements and seminars to help people do the same for their organizations. Murphy couldn’t be prouder.

And it’s why he didn’t do much complaining when Emori said he couldn’t dress up as David S. Pumpkins for the Annual Gala. He does admit that Emori’s idea to dress up as Gomez and Morticia from _The Addams Family_ is probably better. And Murphy can definitely relate to Gomez. He also loves his wife more than anything else, so he quickly agreed to the costume.

Murphy steps out of the bathroom and back into their bedroom. Emori is sitting at her vanity as she puts on her make-up. She straightened her hair for the costume, and found the perfect black dress that hugs her in all the right places. He comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her before pressing a kiss to her neck.

Emori chuckles, leaning into his touch. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Murphy murmurs into her neck. “You look so good.”

“John, I’m getting ready.”

“Well what if I want to get you unready?”

She sighs and he chuckles at her fond eye roll as she turns to face him.

“Fifteen minutes,” she says firmly, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Murphy nods, a grin spreading across his face. “I can work with fifteen minutes.”

Emori laughs before pulling Murphy down to meet her lips with his. Usually Murphy likes to take his time, never tiring of the sensation of kissing his wife, but if he’s only got fifteen minutes, he needs to speed the process up. He lifts them, causing Emori to let out a surprised laugh, as he switches their positions so that he’s sitting in the chair. He pulls her into his lap, hands roaming to the back of her dress, making quick work of the zipper.

If Murphy weren’t so lost in the task at hand, he probably would have been more aware of footsteps clambering down the hall, closer and closer to the master bedroom. Unfortunately he and Emori are busy, so they remain blissfully unaware until Ana turns the doorknob and lets herself and Charlie into the room.

“Fuck!” Murphy shouts as he and Emori spring apart. Emori yelps, hands quickly going to her zipper to pull it back up.

“Swear jar!” Ana says, crossing her arms as she stands in the middle of the room.

“Fine,” he grumbles. He goes to the dresser and takes a dollar out of his wallet before handing it to Ana.

The Murphy household had to institute a swear jar after Murphy dropped the f-bomb one too many times, and Ana introduced the word to some of her preschool friends. Now that she’s six, she’s the keeper of the jar. And Murphy curses often enough that the jar fills up quickly, meaning that when it’s full they use the money to go out to a restaurant of Ana’s choosing.

“You have lipstick on your face, Daddy,” Ana continues.

Murphy wipes at his face, though he knows that probably just made it worse. “Thanks, squirt.”

“You guys kiss too much.”

“Yeah, well you open doors without knocking too much.”

“John,” Emori warns as she sits on the bed with Charlie.

They’ve had many a conversation about how Murphy’s sass has been rubbing off on Ana and creating not the best attitude. But he can’t help it that she’s his child.

Murphy takes a breath before sitting at Emori’s vanity chair and gesturing for Ana to come join him. She runs to him and he lifts her in his arms before placing her in his lap.

“Remember when we talked about how sometimes a door is closed because people want privacy?” Murphy asks.

Ana nods.

“So it’s important that when you see the door is closed that you knock. Mommy and Daddy could have been changing.”

“But you weren’t changing,” she points out.

Emori snorts and Murphy throws her a glare over Ana’s head.

“Well sometimes mommies and daddies need privacy for other stuff. Moral of the story is, if the door is closed, you knock. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now why don’t you go wait in the window and see if Luca’s coming.”

“Luca!” Ana and Charlie shout. The two of them are obsessed with their regular babysitter. He turned seventeen recently and just got his license, so they love to look out for his car on nights when Murphy and Emori go out.

“Will he get pizza for us?” Charlie asks as he slides off the bed.

“If you guys want pizza,” Emori says. “We’ll leave him some money.”

“Pizza!” Charlie jumps up and down in anticipation of his favorite food. Ana grabs him by the hand and leads him out of Murphy and Emori’s bedroom.

They watch their children go as they head downstairs. After a moment Murphy turns to Emori, who bursts out laughing. She lies back on the bed, still chuckling to herself.

“I think you’d find this all a lot less funny if you were the one that had to have these conversations with her,” Murphy says, flopping back on the bed next to her.

“I have conversations with her,” Emori says. “We talk about our dreams.”

“That’s fun, though. How did you get to be the fun parent? _I_ used to be fun.”

“You’re still fun, babe.” Emori pats his shoulder and kisses him on the cheek. “Now go wipe that lipstick off your face, we need to leave as soon as Luca gets here.”

Murphy smiles and does as he’s told, leaving Emori to finish getting ready.

Once Luca arrives, Murphy hands him some cash for pizza and he calls a Lyft to take them to the foundation’s building. He’s not having a repeat of last year’s gala where he was the designated driver and as a result was the most sober person at the function. He knows he’ll have to keep it under control so as not to embarrass Emori, but he at least wants to have more than one drink to get through schmoozing with a bunch of rich people.

Emori’s development team does a great job of planning the gala every year, complete with coming up with a fun theme. He’s surprised nobody’s thought to do a Halloween themed party before, since the event is always in October, but he’s glad someone finally floated the idea. Getting to dress up as Gomez is a bit more exciting than the boring suits he normally wears to these functions. The thing that Murphy doesn’t tell anyone though is that he kind of loves Emori’s work events.

Many people have taken the time to ask Emori how she balances being a working mother of two young children while also running a notable nonprofit. Usually her response is, “I have a house husband”, which most people take as a joke and laugh. But being a house husband is no laughing matter to Murphy. It’s not something he ever pictured himself doing, but now that he does it, he thinks he was probably born to do it. And he gets proof of why he’s so proud to do it every time he gets to come to work events with Emori.

He loves to watch her shine, completely in her element as she charms her donors and board members. She’s respected and loved in the community, and it’s a reminder that she gets to do what she loves best and still have her family. They’ve been very fortunate in that regard, and Murphy is glad of the way things have played out for them.

Murphy sticks by Emori’s side for the cocktail hour, sipping on his glass of wine and zoning in and out of the conversation. As much as he’s happy for his wife and her success in her career, sometimes hearing about it can get a little boring. He scans the room, admiring other people’s costumes. The guests really went all out, but that’s to be expected from a room of wealthy people.

“And what do you do, Mr. Murphy?” a woman dressed as Cruella DeVil asks him.

Murphy shrugs. “I’m her trophy husband.”

The woman’s smile falters, but she eventually laughs.

Emori pats John’s arm. “He’s also a Youtuber.”

“Oh. I thought Youtubers were mostly just young teens who play pranks on each other and make up strange dances.”

“I think you’re confusing it with Tik Tok,” Murphy says before sipping his wine.

“Perhaps I am. This has been a lovely evening so far, Emori,” the woman says before smiling at them and walking off in search of someone else to talk to.

Emori raises an eyebrow at Murphy once she’s gone.

“What? She seemed like the target audience for the trophy husband joke.”

“She was not young enough for that to be funny, and you know it,” Emori counters.

“Some older people love it.”

Nelson, someone on Emori’s development team, makes his way over to them. He’s walking with purpose, one hand on the earpiece attached to his walkie talkie.

“Emori, it’s just about time for your speech,” he says once he arrives in front of them.

“Thanks, Nelson. John, I’ll see you at dinner, okay?”

“You got this, baby,” Murphy says with a smile as Emori heads off with Nelson to prepare for her speech. He stands awkwardly in the corner, wishing he knew where Bellamy was. The only downside to these events is that when Emori has to go do actual work, he’s left to stand by himself sometimes. No matter how many years they’ve been doing this, he doesn’t think he’ll ever be completely used to talking to rich people.

Thankfully Emori’s speech is not far off. She thanks everyone for coming, gives a brief “year in review” for the organization, and reminds everyone to check out the silent auction. She launches into the donation pitch, a heartfelt message about her foster care story and knowing she wanted to help other kids in similar situations to hers. Murphy’s only a little glad he was never able to find Bellamy, because Bellamy would’ve made fun of him for getting teary-eyed at that part of the speech. Emori ends by welcoming everyone into dinner, and Murphy goes to find her in the dining room.

Murphy wishes he could’ve sat with Bellamy and Clarke at their table, but Emori has to sit at one of the head tables strategically placed with the major donors. He’ll find Bellamy later during the entertainment portion of the evening. He spots Emori and heads in her direction. She smiles as she turns to see him coming.

He plants a quick kiss to her cheek. “You were wonderful.”

“Thank you, John. But you see that every year.”

“Doesn’t mean it’s not great every time. And you know I take my trophy husband role very seriously.”

Emori chuckles before gesturing to the table they’re seated at. There’s a couple already seated there, dressed as Romeo and Juliet from the Baz Luhrmann movie. The blonde woman even has the wings and everything. Murphy wonders if that’s uncomfortable with the back of the chair, but they don’t seem to bother her.

“Gabriel, it’s so lovely to see you!” Emori says, as the man dressed in chainmail stands up and gives her a hug. He is very tall and very beautiful, Murphy thinks to himself.

“Likewise,” Gabriel says. “Emori, I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Josephine.”

The blonde woman with the wings smiles cordially and extends her hand to Emori to shake it. Murphy feels like he knows her from somewhere, but he can’t place where that could be.

“Nice to meet you, Josephine. And this is my husband, John.”

Murphy shakes both Gabriel and Josephine’s hands. “Nice to meet you both.”

Emori turns to whisper to Murphy as they sit down. “Gabriel is one of our newer donors that we’re trying to steward and hopefully increase his gift next year. Would you mind talking to his wife and keeping her happy?”

Murphy nods. “Anything for you.”

She smiles. “Thank you.”

“Emori, you were saying when we last talked that you wanted to tell me more about some upcoming programs and initiatives, and I thought you could tell me while we eat. Josie, you don’t mind, do you?” Gabriel asks.

Josephine shakes her head. “Not at all. I’ll just talk to John.” She flashes Murphy a saccharine smile as he takes the seat next to her.

Murphy makes simple small talk with Josephine over the soup course. She seems nice enough, laughing at his dumb jokes and asking him some questions of her own.

“You must be so proud of your wife. She’s really doing great things,” Josephine says during the entree.

“I am. She’s a lot more selfless than I am, so good thing our kids have her to look up to as well,” Murphy says.

“How old are your kids?”

“Our daughter is six, and our son is three.”

“Such sweet ages. Our daughters are eight and five, and I’m missing the toddler stage right about now.”

Murphy chuckles. “Yeah, Charlie is pretty precious.”

“So what do you do?”

“I actually stay at home with the kids.”

Josephine’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise at his response. Murphy’s used to that sort of thing.

“Oh, that’s nice. A fellow stay-at-home parent,” she says.

Murphy nods. “How are you adjusting now that both of your kids are in school? I’m not sure what I’m going to do when Charlie starts preschool next year.”

“I’ve been loving going to midday exercise classes. Haven’t gotten to do that since before I was pregnant. And having them in school frees up time for errands as well. And maybe when they’re both in school you can find a new hobby with all your spare time.”

“I mean, I guess I have a bit of a hobby now,” Murphy says.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Another dad friend and I have a Youtube channel together. We make content geared towards stay-at-home and single dads.”

Josephine tilts her head. “That’s cute.”

Murphy nods, though he’s not completely sure cute is a compliment in this context.

“What’s it called?”

“Two Dads & a Vlog.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of that! A few of my followers have left comments on my blog asking if I’ve seen any of your videos,” Josephine says.

“Oh, do you have a parenting blog?”

“I do. I run _Maman_.”

Murphy can’t hide the way his eyes widen at hearing this news. _Maman_ is probably the biggest mommy blog on the internet. It’s known for featuring the most expensive products, only the best of the best. Murphy’s always found the content on the site to be incredibly bougie and not always helpful. Though clearly that’s not a sentiment that everyone shares.

“Oh, I thought you looked familiar. I’ve watched a few of your videos.”

Josephine laughs, taking a piece of her hair and twirling it between her fingers. “That’s so nice. I’ve really enjoyed branching out into video content this year. It’s fun to write the blog, but getting to film extra segments and share a bit more with my followers has just been absolutely amazing.”

Murphy fights the urge to grimace, nodding along with Josephine as she talks about her blog. He’s still bitter that she called Two Dads & a Vlog “cute” in such a condescending tone, but he already knew he couldn’t mess up this conversation for Emori’s sake. Now he can’t mess it up for his own sake, either. A scathing review of the channel on _Maman_ could really tank their viewership.

Dinner mercifully ends, and the party portion of the night can begin. Murphy leaves Emori to do more schmoozing and checking in with her staff. He goes in search of Bellamy and the bar. He finds him on the second floor, standing off to the side of the dance floor, dressed like some sort of Disney prince and sipping a beer. Murphy spots Clarke on the other side of the room, wearing a purple and pink dress and her hair in an elaborate braid. She’s talking to one of her doctor friends, Jackson, and his husband Miller. It looks like they’re dressed as Finn and Poe from Star Wars. Murphy orders a beer of his own from the bar before making his way over to Bellamy.

“What are you supposed to be?” Murphy asks in lieu of greeting.

Bellamy snorts. “Hello to you, too, Gomez. And we’re Flynn and Rapunzel from _Tangled_.”

“That’s cute. Is August still obsessed with that movie?”

“Yes, so now Clarke is obsessed with it too.”

“You’re lucky it’s not something annoying.”

“That’s true. But I would like for a day to go by where Clarke doesn’t hum ‘When Will My Life Begin’ under her breath as she gets ready in the morning.”

Murphy laughs. “Don’t act like you don’t love that, though.”

Bellamy ducks his head as his cheeks go bright red. Murphy knows Bellamy loves Clarke way too much to not be charmed even by her more annoying behaviors.

“How was dinner for you?” Bellamy asks.

“I had to sit next to a condescending mommy blogger.”

“That’s random.”

“Yeah, and not just any mommy blogger. Josephine Lightbourne.”

Bellamy’s eyes widen and he chokes on his beer. “Josephine Lightbourne of _Maman_?”

“The very same. She and her husband are new donors, and I had to entertain her while Emori told him about all their initiatives. And she called our channel ‘cute’.”

Bellamy frowns. “Cute? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly! I doubt she’s ever watched any of our videos, either. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Hi, John!” a voice calls from behind him.

Murphy freezes and turns to find Josephine approaching him and Bellamy. He hopes the music in the room is loud enough that she didn’t overhear their conversation.

“Josephine! Fancy seeing you here.”

She laughs before turning to look at Bellamy. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Bellamy, my friend that I do Two Dads & a Vlog with.”

Bellamy extends his hand. “Bellamy Blake. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, Bellamy. I have to say, you guys look rather different in person than you do on camera.”

“Hopefully we’re better looking in person,” Murphy jokes.

Josephine laughs again, but turns to Bellamy. “So Bellamy, I’ve watched a few of your book videos. I was just wondering, what makes you pick the books that you review?”

“I like to revisit books from my own childhood that I have good association with. Sometimes to see if they hold up, sometimes because I want August and Maia to have a piece of what it was like for me growing up.”

Josephine nods along as Bellamy explains. “That’s so interesting. And John, how do you decide what recipes you’re going to showcase?”

Murphy frowns, a little thrown by all the questioning. “I alway test them out on my kids first. They’re not picky, so if they don’t like it, I know something’s wrong. But it’s usually based on what I have in the fridge.”

“It’s so lovely to see how homegrown your channel is. Little success stories like that just warm my heart.”

Now Murphy sees red. He’s not sure how he’s supposed to take that other than as an insult. He hazards a glance at Bellamy to see his jaw is clenched, like he’s also trying to keep his composure.

“We’ve been very lucky,” Bellamy finally says.

“I should go. Emori was telling Gabriel about the haunted house set up, and he’s eager to try it. But it was lovely meeting you both. Hope we cross paths again.”

With that, Josephine flashes them one last smile before flouncing off in search of her husband. Murphy and Bellamy stare at her in disbelief as she goes.

“Did that just happen?” Murphy wonders aloud.

“That was the most backhanded compliment I have ever received in my entire life,” Bellamy finally says.

“I really hope she didn’t hear us talking about her before she walked up to us.”

“There’s no way she heard us. It’s too loud in here.”

“It’d be just our luck that she’s got amazing hearing or something.”

“Why’d she ask all those questions about our videos?”

“Who knows? All I know is if the circumstances were different, and she weren’t one of Emori’s major donors, I would already be planning some way to take her down.”

Bellamy scoffs. “Please. _Maman_ is way too popular for that. It’s like aspirational influencer parenting.”

“It’s not important since we can’t do anything about it. But we’re smart, we would’ve found a way.”

“Whatever you say, man.”

Murphy sips on his beer, trying to rid his mouth of the sour taste that’s been left after that interaction with Josephine. He tries to put it out of his mind for the rest of the night and enjoy the party now that he’s able to hang out with Bellamy and Clarke. He takes photo booth pictures with Emori, so they have something to memorialize their costumes and he even lets her drag him to the dance floor for a few songs.

The whole ordeal doesn’t leave his mind completely though, as he complains about it to Emori in their Lyft home. What does Josephine have against their channel? It’s not like they’re making content for the same demographic. The more Murphy thinks about it, the less the whole thing makes sense. He doesn’t want to be so affected by it, but his channel has come to mean a lot to him, and he’s proud of the content that he and Bellamy put out. They have a dedicated fanbase, and people turn to them for advice and information. So what if a stuck-up mommy blogger doesn’t like their videos? Sure, she runs the most popular blog of the moment, but that doesn’t mean that her word is God. And at the end of the day, even though they do get some money out of it now, they’ve always done it for fun first. Murphy relaxes as he gets ready for bed, slightly more secure in the fact that he does not need Josephine Lightbourne’s approval.

**_____________________**

The next week, Bellamy makes his way up the walk to Murphy’s front door, Maia in his arms. Typical Wednesday. He rings the doorbell and waits as he hears footsteps approaching.

“We’re going to war,” Murphy says as he opens the door and walks back into his house.

Bellamy frowns, but walks inside and closes the door behind him. He puts Maia down in the living room with Charlie and Roan, then follows Murphy into the kitchen.

“What do you mean we’re going to war?” Bellamy asks.

Murphy hands Bellamy his mug. “We’re going to war. With Josephine.”

“Josephine of _Maman_?”

“Come on, man, what other Josephine is there?”

“What happened to not doing anything for Emori’s sake?”

“Emori gave me her blessing, so long as it’s not completely malicious,” Murphy explains.

“I don’t know, Murphy. I mean, we’re not even completely sure those things she said about our channel were actually meant to be rude.”

Murphy snorts and slides his laptop across the counter. Bellamy sees it’s open on a new video on Josephine’s channel. He looks up at Murphy and frowns, but presses play.

“Bonjour, mis enfants!” Josephine says once her intro music has ended. “And welcome back to _Maman_. Today I’m going to be talking about this season’s must-have toys. Now as you know, I’m a planner. And my motto with my kids is always ‘Only the best of the best for my sweet babies.’ I don’t just throw together a meal with what’s leftover in the fridge or read them some outdated book that I had when I was growing up. I’m interested in what’s new, what’s current, and I know it’s only October, but this video is definitely gonna help me get my holiday shopping out of the way.”

Bellamy pauses the video, trying hard to unclench his jaw. This woman on the internet sending a thinly veiled dig at him shouldn’t necessarily make him this upset. But it does. And it makes it much harder to be the bigger person and talk Murphy down.

“Maybe she did hear us talking about her at the gala?” Bellamy wonders aloud, trying to make sense of the situation.

“Yeah, or maybe she just sucks. Making it sound like I feed my children scraps from the trash.”

“I mean, I guess some books are outdated, but what’s wrong with giving your kids a piece of your childhood? My mom did that with me and my sister.”

“She knew exactly what she was doing, so now we’re going to war.” Murphy slams his hand down on the table.

“What exactly did you have in mind?”

“I’ve already told Roan we’re pushing the video about Halloween crafts until next week and we’re gonna fast track a video of us talking about imagination games instead. Get your mug and let’s get going.”

Bellamy watches as Murphy heads upstairs to his office. He hasn’t seen his friend this determined in a long time. He would laugh if he weren’t equally as pissed off. Who does Josephine think she is? Not everyone can afford the best of the best, and the condescending tone she takes in her videos and on her blog makes it sound as though spending a lot of money is the only valid way to parent. She needs to be taken down a peg.

He follows Murphy upstairs, where everything is already set and ready to go. He really means business today. Bellamy sits down and Murphy starts the camera.

“Hi, welcome back to Two Dads & a Vlog. I’m Murphy, that’s Bellamy. And today’s video is a little less planned than normal. Originally we were gonna talk about Halloween crafts, but we thought we’d save that one for next week. Instead, we’re gonna talk about games and how kids play.”

“Yeah,” Bellamy says with a nod. “It’s always nice to be able to gift your kids with a toy that they’ve been begging for, but it’s also important to play with your kids and get them using their imaginations.”

“For sure. I mentioned last week that Ana helps me make dinner a couple times a week. But she even brings cooking into her playtime. She has a little restaurant and loves to make meals for her little brother. She’s basically already a budding chef.”

“And August could sit under a blanket fort for hours. He likes to pretend he’s camping, and sometimes I’ll play some outdoor sounds for him so he can get the full experience. Maia doesn’t have the attention span for it yet, but she’s starting to enjoy it more.”

Bellamy and Murphy continue to talk about ways they play with their kids that don’t cost a fortune, even recalling memories of how they used to play when they were children. The message of the video is that you don’t need the latest, greatest, expensive toy to entertain your children when they’ve got their minds so readily available. Half the time the fun toys that Murphy and Bellamy have bought for their kids have been played with once and then never touched again. Sometimes money is better spent somewhere else.

When their video goes up on Friday, they receive quite a few comments from their subscribers asking if it’s in response to the latest toy video on Josephine’s channel. The video is somewhat shady, but it could easily be denied that they made it to mess with Josephine. For all the internet knows, Bellamy and Murphy don’t even know Josephine Lightbourne. Bellamy lets the team know not to respond to any comments that mention her or _Maman_ , but they can feel free to reply to other parents talking about the games they used to play as a kid and the ones their kids like to play now. It warms Bellamy’s heart seeing everyone interact in the comments and sharing stories with each other.

Josephine’s retaliation comes a week later in the form of a recipe on the _Maman_ blog. Roan sends it to Murphy and Bellamy over email. The beginning reads as most recipes on the internet do: with a long-winded story that leads nowhere before actually getting to the recipe. Unfortunately, Bellamy can’t skip the long-winded story, and in it he finds a subtle dig at how Josephine would never consider making something as “basic as mac and cheese” before launching into an overly complicated chicken dish that Bellamy’s not sure any kid would like.

Bellamy calls Murphy, who of course is livid that someone would insult his cooking.

“I could kill Josephine,” Murphy grumbles as he picks up the phone.

“Who are you gonna kill?” Bellamy hears Ana ask in the background.

“No one, sweetie. Killing people is wrong.”

Bellamy chuckles. “I’m not sure mushroom chicken is gonna be a hit with your kids. I don’t care if they’re not picky, _I_ don’t even want to eat it.”

“I just can’t believe she called mac and cheese basic. My mac and cheese recipe has six fucking cheeses, that’s not basic!”

“Swear jar!”

Murphy sighs on the other line. “Ana, I’ll give you a dollar later, go talk to Mommy for a bit. Daddy’s working, okay?”

“But you don’t work!”

“The channel is work, squirt. Please go find Mommy.”

Bellamy suppresses a laugh as Murphy presumably waits for Ana to leave the room.

“So what are you gonna do?” Bellamy asks.

“Well first thing tomorrow I’m going to the store, so I can get the ingredients for this damn recipe. And then I’m gonna make it so a child would actually want to eat it.”

“Good luck with that.”

“I don’t need your luck. I’m amazing.” And with that, Murphy hangs up the phone.

Bellamy closes his laptop and goes into the living room where Clarke is situated with the kids on the couch. They don’t normally stay up this late during the week, but Clarke has been on call for the past couple weekends and hasn’t been home to spend time with them, so they’ve made an exception on a week night. Bellamy just hopes August won’t be too terrible in the morning when he has to get ready for school.

“Was that Murphy?” Clarke asks. August is sitting with his head in her lap so that she can play with his hair.

“Yup. The Josephine saga continues,” Bellamy says. He picks Maia up as he goes to sit down so she can sit on his lap, as per usual.

Clarke chuckles. “How long do you think that’s going to last?”

He shrugs. “Until Murphy gets bored with it. But honestly, I’m happy to keep doing it. We’ve gotten a lot of new subscribers this week, and I think it’s partially to do with that. And you didn’t hear the way she said that stuff to us at the gala, Clarke. She thinks she’s better than us. It’s so aggravating.”

“It sounds like it. She seems like a piece of work.”

“How come you guys get to talk during the movie?” August asks.

Bellamy and Clarke exchange a smile at their son’s interjection. His very polite way of telling them to shut up is endearing.

“You’re right, Augie,” Bellamy answers. “We’ll pay attention.”

August nods and turns his own attention back to the television. He’s seen _Tangled_ more times than Bellamy can count at this point, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll ever tire of it. Bellamy suspects they’ll be watching it for the foreseeable future, but he takes solace in Murphy’s words that August could have found a more annoying movie to latch onto.

A few weeks go by as Bellamy and Murphy continue to throw shade at Josephine with their videos and vice versa. By now, it’s clear that’s what’s going on between the two parties, and Roan has taken to reading out loud the most interesting comments on the matter to start their meetings.

“Winemom35 says, ‘I never much cared for Josephine’s videos. You guys are the real deal, creating content and providing information that’s accessible for all parents’,” Roan reads.

Bellamy smiles. “I mean, it’s the whole reason we started doing this.”

“And since it’s started you guys have gained about fifty thousand new subscribers. So either you guys are really amazing, or people just hate Josephine.”

Murphy snorts. “Try a mix of both.”

“Some other good news,” Roan continues. “Two Dads & a Vlog has been nominated in the _Parents Magazine_ Readers Choice Awards in a couple categories. Best Parenting Vlog and Most Original Content.”

Bellamy and Murphy both snap to attention, eyes wide as they look at each other. Is this real? He can’t believe their luck. There are a lot of parenting vlogs out there, so to even be on the list is incredible.

“ _Maman_ is nominated in both of those categories.”

And just like that, the dream moment is over. Bellamy sighs, sitting back in his chair.

“I mean, it’s just nice to be recognized at all,” he says.

Murphy slaps a hand on the table. “No, this is not the time to accept defeat. This is how we win!”

“Win what?”

“The war, Bellamy! God, keep up.”

“I mean, views on all of your videos have gone up since this feud with Josephine started,” Roan adds.

“See! All the more reason to really hammer it home and tell everyone to vote for us.”

“Obviously, we’re going to tell people to vote for us!” Bellamy says. “But I just don’t want you to get all bent out of shape if we don’t win. We’re in the same category as Josephine Lightbourne, the queen of bougie. We can’t compete with that.”

“Not with that attitude, we can’t.”

“Just encourage people to vote at the end of your vlog today, please,” Roan says with a sigh. Bellamy knows he’s probably tired of their shenanigans. They’re lucky he puts up with them. Murphy’s probably right about most of it being because their kids are so cute.

They record the video they had already planned about Halloween costumes. Murphy talks for a good ten minutes about how both of the Murphy children were dressed as pumpkins for their first Halloweens, and nobody ever tires of a baby dressed like a pumpkin. They spend the rest of their morning planning the reintroduction video Roan suggested they record, since they’ve had an influx of new subscribers.

Bellamy doesn’t consider himself a very antsy or nervous person. But in the weeks leading up to hearing about the results of the _Parents Magazine_ awards, he can’t seem to shake a bad case of jitters. As much as he tells himself that he’s just glad their channel was recognized, he really would love to win. Bellamy has been lucky enough to provide for his children in a way he didn’t fully experience growing up. He hates how Josephine’s brand of parenting excludes anyone who doesn’t have a certain amount of disposable income. The thing he’s loved most about creating this channel with Murphy is coming up with creative solutions and activities for parents who are on a tighter budget, since they need advice too. And the recognition for all the work he and Murphy put into their videos would be nice. For as much as they say they’re “stay-at-home dads”, this Youtube channel sure has grown enough that it’s basically become a job. Bellamy loves it and wouldn’t trade it for the world. And it would be really nice to rub it in Josephine Lightbourne’s smug, bougie face.

A few weeks go by, and Bellamy is glad to get a little extra sleep on a Saturday morning. Miraculously, neither August or Maia seem to be awake yet, or if they are they haven’t shouted. Clarke is curled into his side and he settles back in, closing his eyes again to get just a few more minutes of rest. Unfortunately, his phone starts buzzing on his bedside table. Bellamy groans as he reaches for it and puts it to his ear.

“What?” he asks, voice groggy.

“WE DID IT!” Murphy shouts into Bellamy’s ear.

Clarke groans next to Bellamy and opens her eyes.

“Who is shouting?” she asks.

“It’s Murphy,” Bellamy answers.

“Tell him to shut up.”

“Tell Clarke I heard that, and I will not shut up. You know what, just for that, put me on speaker,” Murphy says.

Bellamy rolls his eyes, but does as he’s told. “Go again, please.”

“We did it! We fucking won. We beat Josephine and _Maman_!”

Bellamy’s eyes shoot open as he fully wakes up and hears what Murphy is saying. Clarke has the same reaction.

“What? You’re kidding.”

“Check your email.”

He scrolls to his email and finds a notification at the top of his inbox from _Parenting Magazine_. Two Dads & a Vlog won in the categories Most Original Content and Best Parenting Vlog. It almost doesn’t feel real.

“Baby, that’s amazing!” Clarke says, shaking Bellamy’s arm.

Bellamy is at a loss for words. He had stopped wanting to hope that this could happen, that they could really beat Josephine. But people voted for them. He almost has to pinch himself to make sure this really isn’t a dream.

“I’m gonna keep talking since I know you didn’t read the whole email,” Murphy continues. “But they want us to be the cover story for next month’s issue!”

“Holy crap! We really did it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“John, it’s too early to shout,” Emori grumbles in the background.

“Baby, we won the magazine award,” he tells her.

“What!” She squeals and then things start to sound a bit muffled. Bellamy’s not completely sure, but it almost sounds like Emori and Murphy are kissing. And not just a quick peck.

Clarke frowns, pretty much confirming what’s happening on the other line.

“Um, we’re still on the phone?” Bellamy says.

“We’ll talk later,” Murphy responds before quickly hanging up.

Clarke laughs. “Those two are a match made in heaven.”

He chuckles. “Soulmates, if you will.”

Clarke nods before leaning over and planting a kiss to Bellamy’s lips. “Congrats. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you want to go back to sleep now?”

“Nah, let’s wake the kids up. I’m feeling like waffles.”

Clarke claps her hands together like an eager child, causing Bellamy to let out a laugh. She wakes the kids while he gets the waffle batter ready. It’s a picture perfect Saturday morning, a quiet breakfast shared with his little family. August is uncharacteristically chatty this morning and launches into an in depth explanation about which dinosaur he’d like to be for Halloween. He changes his mind three times along the way, causing Bellamy and Clarke to exchange a fond smile.

Bellamy doesn’t necessarily think of himself as the luckiest guy in the world, but this morning as he revels in the success of his little channel with Murphy and the life he’s made for himself, he’s on cloud nine.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! Let me know what you think.
> 
> And if you want to prompt me, my ask box is open and I'll write you a fun Bellarke, Memori, or AU Murven story! 
> 
> Come find me on [Tumblr](https://queenemori.tumblr.com/).


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